How to breed turtles in Minecraft

January 2023 · 3 minute read

Like most animals in Minecraft, turtles can provide players with a useful set of resources. However, players cannot simply kill turtles and loot their remains. Instead, it’s a process that requires you to keep the creatures safe and ensure their offspring grow up.

Harvesting resources from creatures in Minecraft usually means a player just has to kill the animal or mob. Then, they’ll then receive the item in the form of a drop and it’s just a case of repeating the process.

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple when it comes to turtles and collecting their shells. Way back in 2018 when Mojang released the creatures into the game, they specifically stated that the animals were “endangered” so killing them wouldn’t make much sense.

Therefore, it’ll take a bit more than a swing of your sword to collect resources from a turtle.

How to make a turtle shell in Minecraft

Turtles can be commonly found on warm beaches and will often spawn in pairs.

The resource we’re looking to collect from turtles is scutes. These are small pieces of shell dropped by the creature as they grow up. That means we’ll need to breed two of the animals to create baby turtles so we can raise them up into adults.

Here’s exactly how to breed two turtles in Minecraft:

How to breed turtles in Minecraft

  • Collect Seagrass using shears – this can be found growing in most bodies of water in Minecraft
  • Locate a pair of turtles – they usually spawn on beaches in warm biomes
  • Right-click on each turtle with the Seagrass and they will breed
  • The turtle will, after a short time, return to the beach and lay its eggs
  • Protect the turtle eggs until they hatch – the eggs are fragile and can be destroyed by mobs

    • After the eggs have hatched, you’ll need to continue to protect the baby turtles as they grow up. Feeding them Seagrass will speed up their growth by 10% and help them reach adulthood faster.

    Each fully grown turtles will provide you with a single scute, so make sure you keep every single one safe from predators.

    What is a turtle shell used for in Minecraft?

    It requires five scutes to craft a turtle shell.

    To create a turtle shell, you’ll need to collect five scutes and arrange them in the order shown above. The shell can be worn in the helmet slot and grants its user the Water Breathing status. This effectively gives you 10 seconds of extra breathing time while underwater.

    Of course, this makes the shells incredibly useful while exploring underwater caverns and hidden areas. It’s worth noting that the turtle shell offers the same amount of defensive points as gold, chainmail, and iron helmets.

    Hopefully, that’s taught you exactly how to breed turtles and craft your own turtle shell. It’s fair to say it’s quite a tedious process but it’s definitely worth it if you’re looking to do some underwater exploration.

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